MVN - Most Valuable Network

Cox, Melancon promoted

Sorry for being MIA for the past few days, it’s finals week for me and I have a lot going on.  After tomorrow afternoon, I will be done and back doing recaps, analysis, and maybe talking some about the draft.  Chad Jennings is reporting that JB Cox has been promoted to AAA, with Mark Melancon moving up to AA to fill his spot.  It seems like the Yankees have these guys on the fast track despite their relatively recent elbow surgeries, and they have performed very well up to this point.

DePodesta Joins the Blogosphere

This is not really related to the Yankees, but I found it interesting anyway.  Paul DePodesta, former GM of the Dodgers, and current front-office assistant for the Padres, has just started a blog.  It sounds like he plans to talk about both the Padres and baseball in general, and it should be neat to hear information directly from an important front office member, and a former GM.  DePodesta is also interesting because he was one of the first front office executives to really use sabermetrics to evaluate players, and I imagine he will have much to say about the subject.

Rainouts, Day Offs, and More Injuries

Scranton and Trenton’s respective games were rained out.

Tampa and Charleston both had the day off.

As some of you have probably noticed, Low-A Charleston prospects Abe Almonte and Wady Rufino have been missing in action for a couple of days now. This is because both players were placed on the DL: Almonte had a lower body injury while Rufino had an upper body injury. Abe and Wady join Jairo Heredia, Brandon Laird,  Adam Olbrychowski, Austin Romine, Brad Suttle, and Ryan Zink as those who are currently on the DL for Charleston. The injury plague certainly has hit the Yankees organization, from top to bottom, in full force. It’s really unfortunate, especially considering that many of the prospects who’ve been hit are highly touted and extremely good in what they do.   

In time, all will be well. We can’t forget that the baseball season is still relatively young and that there is a lot of baseball left. However, like EJ mentioned in the comments section in the previous post, I think it’s time to question the organization’s medical and strength/conditioning staffs. This is the second year in a row that many prospects and major leaguers in the Yankees organization have been plagued by injury. I’m personally starting to get annoyed with all the injuries, because I’m getting the sense that they are all related in some way shape or form.

Then again, maybe the organization really needed the day off. That way, the players can rest and shake off the aches and pains they’ve been having to deal with up until this point.

In the meantime, Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Minor League Recap, 5/10

Scranton loses to Indianapolis, 5-1.

• Dan Giese got the start and was the hard luck loser in this one. In 7 innings, Dan gave up 3 unearned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 8 in the process. During the game, Dan was also able to establish a 9-4 groundout-flyout ratio, doing so on 94 pitches, 66 of them going for strikes.
• In an inning of relief, David Robertson gave up 2 unearned runs on 2 walks and a hit, striking out a batter in the process.
• Brett Gardner was 0 for 2 but to his credit was able to draw 2 walks. On the season, Brett has a 19-25 BB-K ratio.
• Cody Ransom and Eric Duncan were 0 for 4.
• JD Closser was 2 for 3.
• Greg Porter, Justin Christian, and Jason Lane each picked up a hit in their respective at-bats.

Trenton loses to Akron, 3-1.

• George Kontos got the start and was solid in the loss. In 7 innings, GK gave up 3 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 8 in the process.
• J.B. Cox struck out a batter in an inning of relief.
• Austin Jackson, Colin Curtis, Ramiro Pena, Cody Ehlers, and PJ Pilittere were all 1 for 4.
• Edwar Gonzalez, Jose Tabata, Reegie Corona, and Chris Malec all were hitless in their respective at-bats.

Tampa loses to Brevard County, 5-1.

• Grant Duff got the start, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings of work. He also struck out 2.
• In relief, Stephen Artz pitched 3 innings of 1 run ball.
• Philip Bartleski allowed 2 runs on 2 hits in his inning of relief.
• James Cooper, Kyle Anson, and Chris Kunda picked up a hit each in their respective at-bats.
• Luis Nunez, Mitch Hilligross, Josue Calzado, Kevin Smith, and Tim Battle all were hitless in their at-bats.
• Andres Perez was 2 for 3.

Charleston shut out by Asheville, 8-0.

• Dellin Betances got the start and was ineffective like his buddy ZA yesterday. In 4 innings, DB gave up 7 runs (5 earned) on 6 hits (3 homeruns) and a walk, striking out 4 in the process. The one day he doesn’t walk the park, he serves up the longball. The 1-7 groundout-flyout ratio tells us that he was constantly elevating his pitches and was not able to keep the ball down. Dellin basically didn’t have good stuff today, plain and simple. As a result, he ERA rose to 3.73 for the year.
• Craig Heyer gave up an unearned run in 3 innings of relief, striking out 2 in the process.
• Chris Vacek struck out a batter in his shutout inning of relief.
• Austin Krum and Carmen Angelini were 0 for 4.
• Jesus Montero was 0 for 2 with 2 walks.
• Justin Snyder, Braedyn Pruitt, Brian Baisley, and Taylor Holiday each had a hit in today’s contest. Interestingly enough, those were the only hits the Riverdogs could muster on the night.
• Chase Odenreider and Walter Ibarra were 0 for 3.

Pathetic showing by the Yankees minor league affiliates today. Not one of the 19 hits by the minor league hitters throughout the system went for extra bases. On the bright side, at least the big league club won!